Archive for October, 2008

What Makes The 12 String Acoustic Guitar So Special

October 24th, 2008 | Category: Favorite Guitar Sites

If you are looking to start Learn To Play Guitar then perhaps the 12 string guitar is not the best place to start but it is a real thing of beauty.

The 12 string acoustic guitar is a great instrument. In technique, it is basically exactly the same as a normal 6 string guitar, yet there is more depth to it. Because it has double strings, it has an added poignancy that is hard to characterize. The sustain is longer, the notes are deeper, and the tone is richer. Even an entry-level 12 string acoustic guitar will have a power and vibrancy that can capture a whole room. Still, they aren’t for everyone.

The biggest difficulty with 12 string guitars is keeping them in tune. With a six string acoustic or electric guitar, you also need to keep your strings in tune, but it isn’t as sensitive to going out of tune. If one of your pitches drifts slightly, it will barely be audible. With 12 string acoustic guitars, however, it’s a whole different story. There are six pairs of strings, so if one of those strings drifts from its partner, you will get a warbling tone that sounds off. Even a slight divergence can completely change the character of your tone, potentially ruining it.

The solution, of course, is to put in the money for a decent 12 string acoustic guitar and good strings. You want to have high quality tuning knobs that will not go out of tune easily, and you want to take your time tuning the guitar just right. At first it will be frustrating and difficult, but the rewards are well worth it. Having a 12 string acoustic guitar perfectly in tune is like no other musical experience there is.

The other problem is that 12 string acoustics aren’t suitable for all sorts of playing. If you have a heavy blues style with a lot of pull offs and hammer down, it probably isn’t a guitar for you. It is great for finger picking, however, and for very intricate acoustic or classical type music. It is a little bit harder to play than a normal six string guitar because you have to hit both strings at the same time to get it to sound cleanly, but if you can play guitar, it isn’t hard to make the jump to 12 strings. I Have seen many people do it successfully.

The only way to really know if a 12 string acoustic guitar is for you is to try one out. Go to the music store and plan on spending a little bit of time there. Make sure you have it tuned up perfectly before you even strum the first note. Then, spend 20 minutes or so checking out different twelve string acoustic guitars. You will know if they call to to you or if they don’t. There’s a lot you can do with a normal six string electric or acoustic guitar, so don’t get a 12 string unless you really feel the passion. You will be able to tell.

If you are looking to Learn To Play Guitar then check out this site which has a ton of info on Learn How To Play Guitar Online

No comments

An Overview Of Learning How To Read Guitar Tabs

October 21st, 2008 | Category: Favorite Guitar Sites

An Overview of Learning How To Read Guitar Tabs

Learning musical notation can take years of music theory training. There is such a big range of musical notation and learning all of them or even just some of the important ones can take quite a while. If you prefer to learn guitar through written content, there is still hope.

The prefered atlternative for most beginners is to learn guitar tablature. Guitar Tablature, or tab for short, is easy to understand and it is not surprising that most books on learning guitar use tab, usually in combination with musical notation, instead of musical notation alone.

Guitar tab is basically a method of showing guitar fingeringsfinger placements that correspond to the song that it is representing. Though it has it weaknesses, like not being able to show timing or rhythm, its simplicity though still tends to favor many new guitarists as a way to learn how to play guitar. Instead of using musical notation it carries numbers in their place which could only apply to stringed instruments like the guitar.

Most guitarist can’t tell how a song sounds like by just using guitar tabs because it essentially shows you where to put your fingers on the strings of the guitar and on which fret among other things without any indication of timing and how it sounds like.

Guitar tab is made up of six lines instead of five as in music notation and each line represents a string on the guitar. The low string (the thickest string) is shown by the bottom line. It represents what you see when you look down while holding the guitar in the playing position.

The tune of the guitar string is usually written alongside each tab line at the beginning. When no tuning is indicated, the strings can usually be assumed to be in standard tuning (EADGBE).

Numbers on the lines indicate the fret at which to play the strings. A zero means that an open string is to be played.

Guitar tabs can also show you which techniques to use in guitar playing like bends, slides, hammer-ons and pull-offs, harmonics, rake, tapping, vibrato and picking directions. In most cases where music notation is written above the tab where fingerings (which finger you use to fret the guitar) are shown.

An explanation on how to read guitar tabs is usually included in guitar magazines and it is quite easy to understand. Guitar tabs are also used in most guitar books, online guitar lessons and How to Play Guitar DVDs. It is incredibly useful for people who are just starting to learn how to play guitar.

Go to LearnGuitarTabs.com if you wan to learn how to play tabs.

No comments

Guitar Instructions Dvd - Essential Factors That Make It A Valuable Asset.

October 19th, 2008 | Category: Play Guitar Any Style

Learn Guitar DVDs are an excellent way to learn guitar. Online guitar teacher can also be as effective but Guitar Training DVDs gives you more of a sense of ownership because you get something that is tangible.

Like online guitar teacher and everything else, there are good ones and there are bad ones and it is affected on a few factors. The 3 main elements that make better Guitar Training DVD;

1. The guitar teachers ability to teach
2. The structure of the guitar lessons
3. Video Quality.

What makes a good guitar tutors in Guitar Training DVDs?

All three elements affect the quality of the but the guitar teacher is what makes or breaks the overall value of the Guitar Training DVD. Yes, the Guitar Training structure and video quality play an important part in the overall user experience but they mean nothing if no one is delivering the lessons well – people tend to get bored pretty easily and soon give up.

guitar teachers should ideally have all of the following strengths:

1. Good communications skills
2. Can play the guitar exceptionally well
3. Has reasonable experience playing professionally
4. Has the personality that keeps the students from getting bored
5. Understands what a beginner is going through when it comes to learning the guitar

While you don’t need a guitar superstar to teach you to play the guitar though it would be great especially if your level of playing is above that of an intermediate player, it is not mandatory. Guys like Slash and Eric Johnson are outstanding guitar players and they have at some point taught guitar lessons both online and/or on DVD.
I am convinced that great guitar players don’t necessarily make good guitar teachers or can make good Guitar Training DVDs. Just try youtube and search for Guitar Training by Slash and Eric Johnson and you’ll see that there are a lot of other people that could could probably do a better job.

Guitar Lessons Structure

Without a good Guitar Training structure, instead of learning guitar in a efficient way students tend to jump from one lesson to the next without really making progress, people also tend to give up.

There are many ways of structuring Guitar Training but I’m not an expert in structuring Guitar Training because I’m not even a guitar teacher, I’m more of a lifelong student myself. It’s not possible to judge the quality of the Guitar Training structure from the cover itself.

You can know if the structure of the Guitar Training is good if you go through the lessons yourself and find that you are learning fast and not wasting too much time. But you would want to know this before you buy the dvd, not after you ordered it. The next best thing would be to ask someone who have purchased the dvd and ask him (or her) what he thinks.

Video Quality

Video quality is critical in a way that if you can’t see what is being taught you can miss what is really important in the lesson or even not get anything out of the lessons at all. High definition video make the viewing experience pleasurable and increases the perception that the lessons are also of high quality, hence better learning experience.
The important thing is that you can see all the fingering and picking/strumming. The picture should be big enough to see when viewed with the 15” screen.

Other factors

Other factors that influence the quality of Guitar Training DVDs are audio quality and level of detail. Good audio quality almost always comes with good video quality and the lessons structure would usually take into account the level of detail required to be able to get the message across.

No comments

The Basics Of Learning Guitar

October 14th, 2008 | Category: Guitar Tuners

Well, now you may be interested in learning guitar and you want some guide to help you play guitar. Many online guitar lessons can be found on the internet which can turn a beginner into a master. If you are really interested in playing guitar, you can buy one of these lessons and start playing the instrument. However, there are many basics that you must know if you want to learn guitar.

The easy way to learn guitar is practicing the chords which are the fundamentals. To create chords, you need to use your fingers in the correct way. The guitar lessons will tell you where to pull and pluck the strings. A person who has the ability to learn on his own must know how to position the guitar in the right way. There are various positions to hold the guitar and you must first learn that from the lessons.

If you want to learn and master guitar, you must know which guitar you are going to play. Electrical guitar is the most wanted one as you can play many new tunes using the artificial add-ons and technologies. Anyhow, learning to play electrical guitar also wants a lot of practice. You should not consider acoustic guitar to be inferior as this guitar is still used in several classical programs. If you want to play solos, you must learn to handle acoustic guitar because you can create new and excellent tones in the truest form using this type of guitar. Funk guitar is normally not used to play solos. You should be an expert guitar player to create exotic tunes with funk because you have to carefully follow the rhythm of the song when you play this guitar.

The online guitar lessons help you learn guitar from your convenient place. You don’t have to go to the physical classes to learn playing your musical instrument. However, you have to put in lot of efforts to practice the chords very frequently to create the desired sound. There is no one to follow you and correct you with the online lessons. You must be a self learner and you must follow the instructions closely.

After learning to play the chords perfectly, you can be certain and start creating tunes as the tunes are formed by combining chords. Rehearsal is highly crucial to online guitar lesson. Those who have passion for music can use the guitar lessons and you can utilize the same lessons to play varieties of guitars because the basics are the same with various guitars.

No comments

Next Page »

Close
E-mail It